As the saying goes, “one swallow does not make a summer" – but at FENECON I realized if you bring people with the same beliefs in the same room, you can move mountains and suddenly everything is possible. 

We are changing the gears in our monthly Who’s who @EASY-RES series. After we introduced the academic work package leaders of EASY-RES, we will now present you our industrial partners. We are starting the new chapter with Daniela Feilmeier who is Product Manager at FENECON and leads EASY-RES in the company.

Daniela, please tell us about yourself!

I grew up in a small village in Transylvania close to the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. I spent all my childhood surrounded by pure nature and I always enjoyed helping my father inventing and repairing things. My parents were not too surprised when I told them that I wanted to become an engineer.

So, I started studying mechanical engineering at “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania. Being a student is sometimes chaotic and it is difficult to focus as you get insights in so many different areas. When I joined Siemens during the last year of my bachelor’s program, I realized how my knowledge and interests fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. Studying and working as a Production Planner for circuit breakers at Siemens helped me to find my strengths and develop confidence in my skills.

After five years of experience I relocated to Germany for a post as Sales Support Engineer at Kromberg & Schubert. Working in the automotive industry was a big change for me, but also allowed me to apply and rethink my knowledge to a completely new field.

In 2017, I had the chance to join FENECON where I am holding a position as Product Manager for energy storage systems and Coordinator for R&D projects like EASY-RES. My passion for nature, environment, and technology had been ever increasing since I was a child. I had kept seeking for ways to contribute to visible improvements in these areas. As the saying goes, “one swallow does not make a summer" – but at FENECON I realized if you bring people with the same beliefs in the same room, you can move mountains and suddenly everything is possible.

What is FENECON’s mission? What are you doing at FENECON?

At FENECON everything we do relates to our vision of “Creating a better future with 100 % renewable energies”

In our mission to achieve this goal, we put our focus on a decentralized and renewable energy supply. Our core competency is everything related to battery energy storage and energy management. We provide and consult for sensible solutions to integrate green energy, e.g. from photovoltaics, with energy storage and smart sector coupling with e-mobility and heat. We also carry out intensive research related to the energy market and successfully implement zero and second live projects together with the automotive industry.

With our innovative approach of “the best of 3 worlds” we constantly evaluate the latest innovations in high-performance batteries and efficient power electronics and combine them with our smart and flexible energy management system.

We are especially proud of our FENECON energy management system, which we published as open-source software and laid the foundations for the Open Energy Management System (OpenEMS, www.openems.io) that is now being adopted as a standard by many institutions and companies worldwide.

As a Product Manager I enjoy being able to support the development lifecycle of innovative production-ready solutions that improve how all of us generate and consume energy – for the big goal of creating a better future with 100 % renewable energy.

We value our close cooperation and lively exchange with innovative companies and universities in the field of energy transition. When we first heard about EASY-RES and how it takes an extensive approach on the transition to 100 % renewable energies we were immediately excited to be part of this project. The targets of EASY-RES are absolutely in line with our company’s and my personal vision.

We are bringing in our long-term experience in energy storage systems. FENECON contributes technical knowledge about battery behaviour under stationary and transient conditions as well as our experience in control algorithms. In addition, we are participating in the specification and development of new ancillary services through storage systems and provide the hardware for the laboratory tests. Also, OpenEMS serves as an important part of the required information and communications technology and is further developed within the project.

The energy revolution is an ongoing process. As the percentage of renewable energy in the grid increases and at the same time the old fossil power plants with their rotating masses are shut down, it becomes obvious, that the research topics of EASY-RES have a high practical relevance. As a provider and manufacturer of solutions that are designed to be used for up to 20 years, we have a responsibility to design our products in a way that they are still usable in future energy markets. It is crucial for our company that we understand upcoming requirements and possibilities – and this is where the regular exchange of information among the EASY-RES project members helps a lot.

Being an engineer in the energy field – the time we live in is really exciting. I enjoy finding solutions and solving problems together with my friends and colleagues at FENECON. My motivation is the future – our future. The possibilities we have in this domain are so overwhelming and I know that with my daily work I can have a positive contribution to the environment. This is a great feeling.

Which private projects or dreams would you like to fulfil?